Something a little bit different today if you can indulge me.
I was informed yesterday evening of the death of an old friend. Sad news as our two families had been close ever since I can remember and we as friends had lived in each others pockets for a good decade. He died while travelling abroad of a suspected heart attack, which is very strange as he was still a young man, he was only months older than myself. It had been a number of months since we last spoke as life and time invariably takes you off in all sorts of different directions. But I can imagine picking up right where we left off.
It's amazing what you can remember from your youth, houses, gardens specific moments in time and you forget actually how old you are. This may sound strange but you tend to live only in the present and maybe in the last couple of years and you forget there was a whole life before the present that has shaped you to become what you are now. I don't have to think too hard to remember a decade ago and further back maybe two decades, the exact places and times I first heard a certain album or what I wore or the first place I smoked and exactly how I felt. The memories are still there they are just under a bit of dust that needs to be blown away. There are a lot of memories of this friend that have come back to me since yesterday. I challenge you today to think of something or someone you might have forgotten, if you concentrate hard enough it's amazing what comes back to you. I hope to travel north to Edinburgh for the funeral this weekend and pay my respects to his parents who were like a second set of parents to me at one point in time.
Anyway sorry for the not writing the usual load of nonsense, normal service will be resumed tomorrow.
jpr
Excellent writing Jim, excellent indeed. We were all fortunate to have each other and what great times we had. Agree totally with your point about "forget there was a whole life before the present", so true, yet odd as it is often deemed healthier to focus on the present as you can do something about it. But it is these instances that provide you with perspective. I'll talk to you later regarding arrangements but a thought that has just come to mind, when we're both next back in Leeds, around Xmas maybe, let's head down to Meanwood CofE or the old LGS site and pay our respects.
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